"Patch 201" - September 15th, 2017

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Have we Fixed the MASSIVE lag in Co-op ( multiplayer ) yet? iv put a lot of work into one game with a pretty big base ect. and iv been holding off playing it all together due to it. Even a new game get that way. the more you build= More unplayable lag.

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Huge Burdens. After the patch, things aren't as fun anymore. Trucks are much slower and weaker I feel, now I can barely drag one other attached truck. Not only that, I'm getting stopped from small rocks and my tethers. It's getting frustrating. It was much more fun when I was able to drive with at least some speed, now it seems as tho I'm just crippled with having to dodge every tiny piece of rock, which is extremely hard since it's everywhere. Please change the trucks strength or power. It's unenjoyable now.

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Huge Burdens. After the patch, things aren't as fun anymore. Trucks are much slower and weaker I feel, now I can barely drag one other attached truck. Not only that, I'm getting stopped from small rocks and my tethers. It's getting frustrating. It was much more fun when I was able to drive with at least some speed, now it seems as tho I'm just crippled with having to dodge every tiny piece of rock, which is extremely hard since it's everywhere. Please change the trucks strength or power. It's unenjoyable now.

Agreed. I typically have a truck pulling two medium rovers (one with a crane, and a 2nd with large storage). Where before, I usually didn't have a problem with my pathing, now I have to go back and level the ground more and make it less steep because my truck has become a pansy.

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Huge Burdens. After the patch, things aren't as fun anymore. Trucks are much slower and weaker I feel, now I can barely drag one other attached truck. Not only that, I'm getting stopped from small rocks and my tethers. It's getting frustrating. It was much more fun when I was able to drive with at least some speed, now it seems as tho I'm just crippled with having to dodge every tiny piece of rock, which is extremely hard since it's everywhere. Please change the trucks strength or power. It's unenjoyable now.

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I haven't spent as much time as needed to unlock the new augment yet, but I did get the large rover straight off the bat, haha I have felt that they're a bit sluggish now, enjoying the new physics of it. The exiting of the rovers when they're upturned is a little different, floating up from underneath the ground, but it's better than death straight away, haha.

In regards to the tethers, can we have an option to auto lock to cursor or not on drop, I have noticed PC players like to be able to drop to their cursor and place OR can we bind to the mouse? I was having trouble assigning keys in the previous build and assigning a tether drop to the third mouse button would be awesome

The physicalness of the tethers is great, have to be more aware of where you're placing them, and I think it could being a future development to the game, say you're mining down a cave, doing a bit of exploring, all of a sudden your line goes dark! You're running up, having to stop along the way to grab oxygen from the random patches. Once you get up there you notice that your tethers are a mess! They've been blown about by a storm which you can see disappearing in the distance. Perhaps this could allow for a tether upgrade? One that spikes into the ground and is unmovable unless removed by the player.

Thanks for the update everyone, really enjoying your work

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I think in regards to tethers, it'd be nice to have a model sorta like modern-day carabiners (or whatever it is those posts you drive into a rockface to attach the carabiners to, sorry I don't rockclimb). Perhaps we'd have an option (like the post above mentions) to place them semi-permanently in the surrounding terrain especially in caves (where the tether network is extremely crucial and also more vulnerable to our modifying it) whereby at the time of placement the tether turns the surround small amount of terrain (a small circumference let's say) into hardened "rock-like material" that doesn't fall with gravity effects. Meaning, if you accidentally undermine that area with the tether in it, it remains in place still, so you don't jeopardize your tether network, losing vital power & oxygen in the process. Again, as the post above mentions, you'd still have the ability to click on the tether (which is essentially a return to the way things were before) and move it to a different location or store it, if moving it the process would repeat, solidifying the patch of terrain underneath so once again it wouldn't be in jeopardy as you mine and modify terrain to suit your needs while spelunking etc.

Right now I find trying to navigate cave systems is a disaster because I never know just how much terrain I'll need to modify (and I travel on foot, I can't imagine how much worse it'd be with the new weaker vehicles that can't manage inclined they used to, and all the reworking required for those it's bound to wreak havoc on many players' underground tether systems I fear). A lot of these things I've mentioned in my posts are game-breaking, but in terms of enjoyment of the game, they sure do wreck the experience which I feel is almost as important (the game has to function first and foremost, but if it's tedious no one will play it either). I must concur driving is worse than it was (although I realized I now can drive backwards for the first time, I just have to position the camera so that my character is facing me, through the screen, and pretty level too, and I can drive backwards like Mater in Cars lol!). That's the cool thing I've found.

I've made my peace with the drop-tether system, but only on flat surfaces so overall I'm still unsure and again not liking the gravity/drop effects (it's just too tedious to fix tethers all the time now) plus I've already had (just as predicted) massive issues with ripping up tethers instead of clicking on resources and research pods etc which there just isn't any reason (I can fathom) why we needed to step backwards to this situation (please return to where tethers aren't active highlighted objects in the environment, it was so much better using cursor to pick them up!). Cursor placement still acts off, can't place under character of you need to raise them up, sometimes can't get cursor into right place on cave walls or ceilings anymore it's like I'm often fighting the camera and cursor and I'm not sure why but it shouldn't feel that way in a game. Still happy the group is making progress on the game as always, sorry it seems just a bunch of griping but rest assured I love this game I play it daily usually several hours at that, and no plans to change either. Looking forward many things ahead, stuff on the road map, like Terrain 2.0!

Edited to add paragraphs for easier reading lol

Edited September 17, 2017 by Shadow Echo

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Cool update but with the truck physic it's no fun for me. I'm constantly using the medium truck and it's a pain in the butt to use it. It feel so weightless that i can't properly drive without driving on the air or flipping backward, while attach does the same thing. Even the smallest bumps cause the thing to be nearly undriveable due to how bounce of the terrain often. The camera angle for the terrain tool is also buggy ish. Whenever i try to aim it close to me, it quickly flash another point, usually far away, but goes back to its original position i had. Overall the update put a poor taste on my mouth and hope these issue will get look into soon. Almost to the point i can't play this game :(.

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It seems that when a Zebra Ball is in selection range it tends to prevent selecting other nearby objects. My cursor didn't show up in the screen grab, but it's sitting over the docked beacon on the right, yet the "pre-selection" indicator is still stuck on the zebra ball. If I click the beacon or the solar panel, the zebra ball is picked up instead.

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A simple update you folks need to slip into the next patch... Once researched, please change the name of that specific object from "Unknown" to "Known". Sure would be nice not to have to drag an assumed new object all the way back to base only to have it crack open to get a chunk of copper. See picture.

It seems that when a Zebra Ball is in selection range it tends to prevent selecting other nearby objects. My cursor didn't show up in the screen grab, but it's sitting over the docked beacon on the right, yet the "pre-selection" indicator is still stuck on the zebra ball. If I click the beacon or the solar panel, the zebra ball is picked up instead.

I confirm that.

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A simple update you folks need to slip into the next patch... Once researched, please change the name of that specific object from "Unknown" to "Known". Sure would be nice not to have to drag an assumed new object all the way back to base only to have it crack open to get a chunk of copper.

Sorry, removed the picture (and reference to it) to save a bit of space as I tend to be a bit...verbose let's say (it just highly detailed I like to think of it) It's my nature, wish I was better at being succinct, but at my age not gonna happen.

Until the Devs reply to anything in this thread, I may can offer up a little bit about why there isn't a name change from "Unknwown" to "Known" at least on the most basic level. I'm sure there's a lot more to it as well, such as continuing motivation to collect and research these pods etc, but that's not really what I think you're asking and so I'll just try to address that right now. Back when the entire research system changed during the Spring (I can't recall but it was a series of updates during which this occurred, although of course one update started it all off), many things became "locked" away at the start of gameplay that had been available to build right away before that. In fact the first iteration even locked away the printer and vehicle bay themselves, a highly unpopular decision (and even with people running many research pods, they were having a lot of difficulty getting those core machines to unlock, it was a frustrating time) so all of this came under the heading of updating the "Research Curve."

Much has happened since then, and there have been issues that have had to be worked out (for the longest time many players said they couldn't find the small organic generator, myself included, along with the "oxygen" unidentifiable research and missing oxygen tank unlock. We also saw oxygen tanks go to being made from titanium, to compound, and back to titanium again. So many, many changes. Still, there are issues, like how it just seems all too random. I know almost every game I play (and I'm very hardcore into Astroneer, have played hundreds of hours, I play daily on Xbox One) I get a crane or drill, something totally useless for a starting base in the first 5 research results. In fact, most of what I get in the top 5 (as in, first 5) don't tend to be useful items and that's not including stuff that comes from pods where I have an idea what they'll yield. The Devs have said it's on the list (aka Road Map, or their To Do List) to ultimately retool research so that it is more logical, giving players unlocks that help more depending on their stage in the game (something like having research "trees" would help, so you don't get a crane or drill until you have vehicles for instance). That way, proceeding through the research process will feel much more satisfying than the "RNG" approach it feels like it is currently. Plus, the way things are now (like you said) you end up with a lot of resources which you may or may not need at that time.

Before the new "Research Curve" came out late Spring, if you researched a pod once, you wouldn't get any new unlock from it. I actually didn't mind so much, because it was a decent way to get extra lithium, titanium, and other rare resources to craft items. Anyway, now that there is a much bigger list of unlocks in the game, as far as I understand it (based off something I either read or heard the Devs say here or in a stream) was that having the same pod type remain viable for continued unlocks no matter how many times it had been researched before was necessary. Because of the number of unlocks, the number of pods, and I suppose something about the game mechanics and how players go through and collect pods and research them, it just would be incredibly onerous and tedious to try to lock everything down to where only one pod would ever yield one result (forgive me if I'm not explaining too well, I'm doing my best to remember what they said and recreate it in my mind). So you can research, say, the "strawmato" (what I call the research pod that looks like a cross between a strawberry & and tomato) and 1st time it gives you say medium storage (idk if that's possible just giving an example). The next 2 times it may give you something like compound, and a filter. The point is, you may still be at a point in the game with a lot of things left unlocked, so the game I guess reslizes this and the next time it will unlock something for you again. I hope that makes sense.

Thats why at least at this point, they can't label them or have their labels turn from "unknown" to "known." I think there are probably several other reasons why they won't have them change names as well. After all, the core underpinnings of a game like Astroneer are exploration and discovery (of which research is a large counterpart) so something that would dissuade further collection & exploration just doesn't seem like something the Devs would inject into the game, but idk your guess is as good as mine. Hope this helped.

Onto report an issue of my own...

This first occurred in 200 I believe, but happened last night as well (I think it was a new game but can't be 100% sure). The first occurrence I can't be sure if I had left a vehicle, but I recall I got "stuck" to a tree. As in, completely stuck to the "bark" or outer wall of it. When I tried to move, I would just circle around the outside of the tree stalk. I was completely stuck. I could use the terrain tool & access my pack, but I couldn't move away. Finally I realized my best solution was to uproot the tree. After doing that, I was freed from the tree I didn't really think about it again, figuring it was a one-off experience.

Last night I was out in a vehicle and was on a bit of a gentle slope, I didn't want my vehicle rolling away so I had parked next to one spaceship before without any problems (the one with the red blinking lights) but I had moved locations and was trying to park next to a different kind of ship (the kind with one end that looks blasted open). So I parked next to it at a bit of an odd angle but I really never thought much about how I parked in the game before tbh I don't use vehicles much anyway, they're too bumpy & slow as is. When I got out (or ejected from the vehicle) the game placed me "inside" the sidewall of the crashed ship, which is a hollow space. I've looked inside that space many times when the camera is going a bit nuts (now I don't bother looking inside, I just "pull" the goodies out without trying to peek or dig around). I didn't know this space was an actual "space" in terms of game coding, oops Anyway, the game somehow glitched me in there & I was stuck. My Astroneer was waving about, circling around in that space, totally stuck. I could access my backpack & deploy the tool just like before, but I couldn't escape or move.

I tried to quit to menu, and reloaded but it returned me to the same space, where I remained stuck. That didn't work In fact there's been a lot of issues with save points , at least on Xbox, not always returning you to last save location (base, vehicle). When I load a saved game, sometimes I find my character out in a field somewhere, or down in a cave, and idk why that's happening but that's a separate issue (I'd love to have a save on demand function but it does beg the question of where will our spawn be? Home base then [if we're out & about]? Because sometimes, you just need to quit a game & go.) So the quit to menu didn't work. Next I removed all my backpack items & placed them near me. I did have aluminum but no recipe for dynamite, luckily the vehicle was far enough away or whatever that I wasn't tethered to it so removing the extra tanks precipitated suffocation. I died but spawned back at base. Not exactly a great solution since my vehicle was a very long way away. I quit to Xbox home & reloaded into the stuck position to try something else. It dawned on me there was a chair right next to me, inside the crashed ship (I hadn't looted it yet, thankfully).

Now I know using the chair-surfing glitch isn't a good thing, and I always caution others about it as well (because it can earlier crash your game, and if it doesn't my some miracle, you can lose your tool reticle which means you basically have to quit the game anyway so there's no reason to risk it unless it's what I call an "emergency." But this, was actually sort of an emergency since I couldn't recover the save otherwise without dying and spawning away from my vehicle, in this case, a long way away. So I maneuvered the chair into position, and did the little double click thing, and boom I was free! I was very happy! I only went far enough to get free, as my vehicle & rest of my gear were nearby. Got out, everything seemed fine. Played awhile longer, I haven't checked the save to see if it's ok lately but hopefully all is well. But that was one strange situation going from the vehicle, to getting out, to being stuck in the sidewall of a crashed ship. Because the behavior of my character was very similar, I'm thinking there may be some sort of common bug involved, although it may be very difficult to pin down if the circumstances that trigger it are very "edge-case." Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else had experienced something similar (aka getting stuck to an object in game that you'd never expect you'd be interacting with, let alone stuck to).

Oh and one last thing, again this started in 200 and has persisted and is incredibly annoying. When pulling up a vehicle to an extension node on my base to "plug it in" to charge or just anchor it (when you see that holographic blue line and you click to turn it into a solid black conduit line)? It refuses to attach to the vehicle the majority of the time! It will act like it's going to extend to the vehicle, but then it retracts back to the base node & shows the holographic line again. I thought if it showed the holograph it meant the vehicle was in adequate position to be hooked up? If so, then that isn't working properly (but it was before 200, it's still broken). Sometimes it will allow hookup but it's extremely finicky. I can only get it to work if my vehicle is extremely close to the node, and if I'm ligned up exactly with the existing direction of the node (along it's long axis, although that may be because of the way my bases are built, so idk how it's working out for other people). I know it's getting frustrating trying to get my vehicles to hook up each time because I never had this issue before.

As always, thanks to anyone who is patient enough to read my tomes. Love the game, as I always say, will continue to play & follow it's progress. Thanks! Sorry, this is too long I'm not going to proofread all of it, sorry if I make any glaring typos etc.

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Issues with cross platform also, paid for the beta, son plays on his account on the xbox one ( on my gold account )

trying to connect from the pc to his game and the game just crashes, same the other way round if he tries to connect.

Is this simply a bug at the moment, or licensing issue ( as only one copy bought ( as I could install on PC and xbox )

I am fairly certain you would need two copies for this scenario, even if you are on separate accounts, as only one of them owns the game. We did have some cross platform crashes last update, but most have since been fixed!

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Sorry, but I know feedback is critical. On XB1 medium rover is useless...it is uncontrollable. It is always pulling wheelies or upsidedown. I took a long break of almost a year from playing this and the mechanics were NOT like this before. There was a storm that blew my rover away when switching planets in the shuttle it showed my rover in orbit!